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Wednesday, August 20, 2014

The cease-fire ended when over 100 rockets were fired at Israel on
Wednesday. This after Hamas violated a 24-hour cease-fire extension of a
five-day cease-fire brokered in Cairo. Israel responded with over 80
air strikes, and recalled 2,000 reservist to the Gaza border. Tuesday
night sirens were heard in Jerusalem at 11:53 p.m. and the Iron Dome was
called into action, downing a rocket. Other rockets aimed at Ashkelon,
Ashdod and Beer Sheva, were also downed by the Iron Dome. Two Israeli
homes were damaged by mortars near the Gaza border, but no injuries were
reported.
Aafter Hamas fired the first few rockets on Tuesday
afternoon, Israeli planes struck at a home in Gaza that intelligence
said contained the Hamas military leader Mohamed Def. The house was
destroyed, and it is as yet unclear if Def was inside. This would have
been the fifth time Israel has tried to assinate Def, a veteran
terrorist who is wanted for organizing suicide bombers in Israel as far
back as the 1990's.
According to reports, Hamas leader Khaled
Mashal, was told by his sponsors in Qatar, where he lives, that if he
does not break the cease-fire with Israel he would be ejected from
Qatar. Mashal not only lives in luxury in Qatar, but has banked nearly
$2 billion in that country. Then at 9:30 p.m. Israel attacked the house
where Def was to have been, dropping approximately seven bombs, totaling
five tons of explosives on the house. Experts in Israel say that Def
was probably injured, if not killed.
However, Hamas spokesmen say
that Def is still alive. “Abu Khaled is a great leader,” said a
spokesman on Arabic TV in Gaza, using Def's nickname.
Military
commentators also pointed out that Def had built a very stable and
highly functioning military and even if he were dead the army he built
was still quite capable of carrying on without him.
Qatar
reportedly is upset with the fact that the Qatar leadership had not been
included in the ceasefire talks in Cairo. Egyptian leaders have little
patience for Qatar's leadership, who they consider sponsors of attempts
to overthrow the Egyptian government under General al-Sissi.
Another
factor complicating the situation is the discovery by Israel of a Hamas
plot in the West Bank to overthrow the Palestinian Authority's Abu
Mazen and replace the PA with Hamas. The plot was hatched by Hamas
operatives in both Turkey and Jordan. The same Hamas men also planned
the kidnapping of the three Israeli teenagers that ignited the current
fighting. Pundits say that ,as would be expected, the PA was having a
hard time sitting in Cairo and trying to broker a cease-fire with
Israel, shuttling between Hamas and Israeli representatives.
Surprisingly,
according to pundits, Israel is still expecting the ceasefire talks to
continue in the next few days. However, analysts say that the option to
send the Israeli army back into Gaza is also on the table. The Israeli
cabinet met on Wednesday to discuss the situation. Israeli commentators
say that Hamas is not interested in another month of fighting. Rather,
one points out, Hamas takes the long view, that one day, maybe tomorrow,
maybe next year, maybe in a decade, or two, they would eventually drive
out the Infidels.
Reportedly, an agreement had been reached in
Cairo that would open some of the Gaza/Israel border crossings, allow
Gaza fishermen to work up to a 12-kilometer limit off the coast, and
even reached an agreement to discuss the distinct possibility of a Gaza
seaport, under international control. The seaport would be stationed
off-shore, in Greece or Cyprus, with cargo examined by Israeli officials
for weapons and explosives, before the cargo was shipped to Gaza.
Gen.
(ret) Giora Eiland told a panel on Channel 10 TV news that Israel had
to start thinking of different strategies. He said that the traditional
methods, using planes, bombs, artillery, tanks, and ground troops, was
not working. He said that Hamas and Gaza were one in the same. The
population supported Hamas, and anyone who thought the population was
captive to Hamas was mistaken. Once the reality of Hamas as a
governmental entity was accepted, then Israel could start using other
methods to control Gaza. Eiland pointed out that Israel supplies Gaza
with most of the water, electricity and communications used by the
population. This conundrum could be used to Israel's advantage by simply
stopping the flow of these services. Ironically, these services
continued even during the fiercest fighting between Hamas and Israel.
Or
Heller, Channel 10 TV's military correspondent, said that the
possibility of Israel using ground forces is still possible but he said
that this was something Hamas would relish. They have set booby-traps
and ambushes in buildings and roads, primed for an Israeli invasion.
Hamas
fought well during Tzuk Eytan, said Heller, not like the previous
battles, then called Cast Lead, nearly two years ago when Hamas fighters
ran from IDF forces. “This time they fought hard, defending every
tunnel opening.” Heller pointed out that Israel lost 10 soldiers in the
Cast Lead incursion in Gaza and of them four were friendly fire. “This
time the IDF lost 64 soldiers. Showing that Hamas was a much better
fighting force than it was before.”
In the Hollywood film
“Extremely Close and Incredibly Loud” a young boy spends the entire film
searching for the lock to a key his late father had hidden in a closet.
The father, played by Tom Hanks, had perished in the 9/11 attack on the
World Trade Center in NYC.
One commentator made the connection to
the current situation. The same terrorist ideology that brought down
the World Trade Center, that is shared by ISIS, formally Al Qaeda in
Iraq, by Hezbollah, and Hamas forms a tight web of belief binding the
groups.
One observer pointed out that the sight of Hamas wounded in Gaza hospitals skews the reality in Hamas' favor.
In
fact, Hamas followers, and their allies around the world, those that
gather to hold anti-Israeli demonstrations, and organize boycotts of
Israeli goods, are the same people, ideologically, who flew those 747's
into the World Trade Center, who attacked the Pentagon, and tried to
attack the White House. For good or bad, the observers say, Israel is
the one facing this rising wave of Islamic fundamentalism on the ground,
on a daily basis.
War is a bloody business. And the west should
remember who would be stood up and shot, hung, or beheaded, if the
Islamists take over.

Wednesday, August 06, 2014

A French TV24 reporter, safe out of Gaza, showed footage of rocket
tubes in the ground a few yards from an apartment building in a
densely populated area only 100 yards from a five story UN building.
Pundits are now sitting in TV studios telling the viewers that
Israel needs to think up more stuff like the Iron Dome, not rely on
the old tanks, artillery, air force bombs. Something wild, like
Entebbe, to neutralizenot only Hamas, today, but Hezbollah, tomorrow,
and ISIS, the day after tomorrow..Pundits now wonder if there are not
other ways than pummeling Gaza into dust.
New methods are needed to battle these groups, said Nehemia
Strassler, an Israeli professor, and Haaretz columnist. Not nice to
hear comments like this, said the moderator on the Channel 2 news
morning talk show.
Other pundits speculated that all the brainy, creative guys have
opted out of joining and staying in the army, as smart guys did when
the state was young, rather choosing high tech jobs. Choosing
Armani, an IPO, a Mercedes, and trips to Paris, over
khaki for thirty years and a small apartment. Now the smart guys
who do reserve duty, put in their time and go home. Lucky for Israel
a surprisingly high number still do reserve duty. Over 90 percent of
those called up for this conflict showed up at their bases.
So, speculate the commentators, who's left to think up the
smart stuff?
They point out that Iron Dome was dreamed up by a guy who had to
fight tooth and nail to get anyone to even think about this device,
and then it was the then Defense Minister Amir Perez, who was part of
the debacle of the second War in Lebanon, who approved it. One of the
only things he ever did right, said one analyst.
Another commentator asked where were the Gatling guns, and lazer
canons, that were to take out the same mortars that killed over
twenty soldiers, and sent the residents of the Gaza border scurrying
to shelter, or taking their children and leaving for the north of
Israel.
Still another asked where were the tunnel detectors that have been
discussed for nearly a decade, reminding viewers that Gilad Shalit
was kidnapped back in 2006 and dragged into a tunnel into Gaza.
A reporter for Channel 10 TV lives in a farm along the Gaza
border. He reported on the situation in the south every day, how many
rockets, how many injuries, how many killed. He worked every day,
nearly all day and night. Hardly slept. The moderator of the TV show
pointed out that this reporter had been a pilot in the Israeli air
force until he finished his service.
The reporter, whose wife and children were with relatives in the
north of the country,wondered what will happen after the first mortar
lands in the Jewish areas along the border.
Will Israel rush troops in, as the commander of the southern
command promised him? Or do nothing, just absorb the mortars, as
Israel has done after the last two wars with Hamas? If the latter
than this Tzuk Eytan action only bought a few months or maybe two
years.
Another analyst on Channel 2 TV news said that Israel has always
been like that. Buying a chunk of time, stretching out the timeline
of how long the Jews can last in this country. A few years here, a
few years there, adding up to 66 years so far.
Israel's pundits say that the idea of Tzuk Eytan was to duplicate
the results of Lebanon in 2006. Demolish enough buildings and shake
the ground so much that that the population won't come back for a
number of years to start another war. So far the Israel/Lebanon
border has been quiet for 8 years. Analaysts say that the present
Israeli government expects the same results from the current Tzuk
Eytan conflict.
A period of quiet.
Another patch on the timeline.
One commentator pointed out that in the 1,000 years that Israel
held the land from the time of King Saul until the destruction of the
2nd Temple Israel only had about 7 years of peace.
So now what? ask the commentators. Will the PA be able to grab the
reins in Gaza from Hamas? Will Egypt supervise what's going to go on
there? Will the USA get involved? Or the EU, or Britain? Will the
threatened boycotts of goods from the EU, Britain, Germany and
others, actually take place?
Time will tell. Hamas was in dire financial trouble before this
conflict.And politically isolated. Now billions of dollars will be
poured into Gaza. And while Hamas claims they want a settlement, most
pundits expect them to steal the cement sent by well-meaning
countries to rebuild Gaza and use them to rebuild the tunnels.
Commentators remind viewers that the last time Hamas and the PA
vied for control of Gaza, Hamas pushed the PA out, sometimes shot
them, sometimes tossed them off of rooftops. These commentators ask
why would the PA be able to control Hamas now?
One analyst said that the PA is a partner with Israel in the West
Bank, but the IDF is there in force to back up the PA. No one expects
the IDF to take up positions in Gaza.
Polls in Israel's papers today say that 44 percent of the
population thinks Israel didn't accomplish much in this war. 42
percent thinks they reached their goals. About 37 percent think that
the problems aren't solved, 32 percent thought they were.
Only PM Netanyahu came out ahead, with a 72 percent approval
rating.
A former general told Channel 1 TV that he'd warned in the past
two engagements with Hamas that unless the leadership was taken out
the rockets would start again in a short time. He reiterated his
opinion for this engagement as well.
The political leadership in Israel is suddenly looking at Saudi
Arabia, Egypt and the PA as possible partners for a new Middle East.
The peace-talks are going on in Cairo. Hamas says they want to make a
peace agreement. A 72-hour ceasefire has been declared, but most
analysts expect the talks in Cairo to last a lot longer since so many
difficult points have to be ironed out. And the analyst reminded the
audience that the negotiations were not face to face. The USA doesn't
talk to Hamas, neither does Egypt, or Israel. The PA representatives
will be the go-betweens, shuttling from floor to floor, suite to
suite, trying to get a lasting truce.
One former general pointed out that the irony was that Hamas, a
puny, guerrilla,, although well-organized army divided into 6
divisions of good fighters, had Israelis kissing the asphalt in Tel
Aviv when a siren sounded, kept millions of Israelis on edge, closed
Ben Gurion Airport, and made a significant dent in Israel's economy.
Economists estimate that the war cost Israel an estimated 8
billion shekels (@$2 billion) and caused a loss of another 4 billion
shekels (@ $1.3 billion) to Israeli businesses.
Hamas considers these major achievements.Their leadership sat out
the war in bunkers, sacrificing the Gazans up to the Holy War. And
when the war is over, Hamas is still around. Still alive. To the
leadership that is a major victory.
64 Israeli soldiers fell in this war. Nearly 150 are in the
hospital, 11 in serious conditions. Three civilians were killed. Over
the last two days three terrorist attacks took place in Israel. A bus
was toppled over by a tractor crushing a passerby. A soldier
hitchhiking in Jerusalem,was shot and killed by a terroist who
escaped on a motorscooter. A guard at the gates of the Israeli town
of Maale Adumim, down the hill from Jerusalem, was stabbed by a
terrorist who escaped in a taxi cab.
The Israeli police reported that on July 11 they'd arrested Hossam
Kawasmeh, who admitted to leading cell which abducted and murdered
Gil-Ad Schaer, Eyal Yifrach, and Naftali Frenkel; He said he'd
received funds from Hamas. Kawasmeh said that the two
Palestinans, Marwan Kawasmeh and Amar Abu-Eish who carried out the
attacks, were sheltered at his house, and then they went underground.
The police are still searching for them.
According to Channel 10 TV news' Alon Ben David, Gaza lost
approximately 2,000 citizens, among them women and children. 700
Hamas fighters were killed in the fighting.
One pundit thought that perhaps, just perhaps, when the Gazans
return to their homes, and see the destruction, they'll pressure
Hamas to change their ways, and seek a peaceful solution. According
to Ynet on-line news, Palestinians in Gaza attacked Hamas spokesman
Sami Abu Zuhri out of anger at Hamas for causing the latest round of
violence with Israel.
An economist speculated that a truce could help implant a new
direction in the region. One that allows Gazan construction workers
to return to jobs they had in Israel before the borders were closed.
Allow an industrial zone that opened, and then closed, on the
Gaza/Israel border where businessmen from the two areas cooperated in
trade. The future could be bright, said the analyst, if only....

Monday, August 04, 2014

Almost all of the soldiers have been pulled out of Gaza.Hamas is still sending in rockets, about 60 today.And two terrorist attacks inside Israel, both in Jerusalem.The driver of a huge tractor with a massive shovel attached to it swung the arm at a city bus and toppled it over crushing a passerby and injuringseveral passengers. Luckily the bus was on its first stop and was nearly empty.Policemen passing by rushed the driver and killed him before he could do any more damage.An hour later a terrorist approached a soldiers' hitching station and opened fire, seriously wounding a soldier in the stomach. He was rushed to hospital, and the terrorist escaped.A terrorist alert was just issued for Tel Aviv.Hamas seems to be reverting to old ways. As you recall back in the 90's Hamas' favorite weapon was suicide bombs.Meanwhile the world community is about to pounce on Israel for massive inhumane destruction of areas of Gaza.New investigations seem to show that it was Hamas that exploded a bomb in the UN school, dragged in bodies, and then allowed in the press.But even if true, and it probably is, that doesn't mean that the public will ever get the scene of the original carnage associated with and probably not even perpetrated by Israel out of their minds.The soldier who rushed into the Gaza tunnel two days ago chasing after the terrorists ran nearly two kilometers before he turned back. He found enough evidence on the way to determine that 2nd Lt. Hadar Goldin was dead. He was buried yesterday.So much for day 28, so far.

Sunday, August 03, 2014

"22
Gazans were killed for ever Israeli. Don't you feel guilty about
that?” asked the host of a BBC talk-show. He was speaking to Israel
government spokesman Mark Regev, who replied, “Hamas shot 2,700
rockets at Israel. If someone shot rockets at Britain you'd react the
same way.”

"But you
have the Iron Dome that effectively neutralized the threat,” the
host said. Regev responded Israel was lucky to have the Iron Dome or
more Israeli lives would have been lost. He said Hamas was trying to
kill Israelis, just wasn't succeeding. One viewer watching the
interview said, “What, now we're to feel guilty that we have the
Iron Dome?”

Regev also
pointed out that Hamas was managing the news, prohibiting reporters
from showing anything but the destruction caused by the Israeli
attacks, or bodies in Gazan hospitals. “Hamas rules Gaza with an
iron fist,” Regev told the BBC host, who appeared to brush off any
Israeli response to what seemed a pre-disposition to find Israel
guilty no matter what the facts. The moderator also asked how Israel
could bomb a marketplace when a ceasefire had been declared. Regev
seemed put off by the blatant one-sidedness of the questions, but
kept his cool. He reminded the moderator that Hamas had broken the
ceasefire by firing rockets into Israel so no ceasefire was in place
when Israel went after terrorists firing rockets from the
marketplace.

Earlier the
program discussed the conflict in Gaza with five participants. One
the former head of the pro-Arab Al Jazeera TV news station, based in
and paid for by Qatar; an Egyptian novelist who thought Egyptians
would live to regret unseating Moslem Brotherhood's Morsi as
president; and a professor from the London school of Economics who
had an Arab name. Two others were former Mossad head Ephraim HaLevi,
and a US diplomat.

HaLevi was
given a couple of minutes to speak, in which he pointed out that
Hamas and Hezbollah were non-state terrorist groups, with Hezbollah
members fighting for Assad in Syria, with Iran supplying boots on the
ground both in Syria and Gaza, and Russia and Iran supplying the
weapons used both in Syria and Gaza. Then he was cut off towards the
end of the sentence as the moderator shifted the topic and
interviewee.

This was the
beginning of a revolution similar to the French Revolution and the
Russian Revolution, said the London School of Economics professor.
The Israeli humanitarian carnage in Gaza would only fuel this
revolution. His words were supported by the Al-Jazerra man, who said
that the entire Arab world would now be mobilized against Israel and
the west, all because of what Israel was doing in Gaza.

The BBC also
ran a special report by chief international correspondent Lyce Doucet
on the plight of children in UN schools in Gaza. One observer
watching the report commented that Doucet has long been a harsh
critic of Israel going back to the time she first began reporting for
the BBC. The report on the children was another of her harsh
criticisms of Israel. Another report on the BBC gave a balanced
background to the conflict, “Israel occupied Gaza in the 1967
Middle East war and only pulled its troops and settlers out in 2005.
Israel considered this the end of the occupation, but it still
exercises control over most of Gaza's borders, waters and airspace.
Egypt controls Gaza's southern border.”

Other
stations ran anti-Israeli pro-Palestinian protests around Europe and
in Washington. Rarely did the reporters note that the mass of
protesters were themselves Palestinians.

As Israel
begins to pull forces out of Gaza the questions now begin, did the
IDF accomplish the goal of quelling the Hamas attacks? Were the
Israeli farms and villages safer after the Israeli incursion into
Gaza than before? Would Israel be held to a harsh standard because of
the human life lost in Gaza?

Israel's PM
Netanyahu told a news conference Saturday night that Israel would
continue to do what was necessary to protect Israel's citizens. This
even as protesters took to the streets calling on the IDF not to
withdraw from Gaza until Hamas was destroyed. Gen (res.) Giora
Eiland, former Israeli National Security Advisor, said that Hamas was
Gaza. You couldn't separate the two. You couldn't destroy Gaza. The
only way to change the situation was to do something that throws
Hamas off-balance. So far, Eiland said, nothing like this has been
achieved.

Military
analysts say that Israel has destroyed 35 tunnels, and will withdraw
forces from those areas where the tunnels were located, but keep
other troops in place to protect the southern settlements.

Most
observers say that a full-scale invasion of Gaza was indeed possible
since is a relatively small area, and could be overrun by Israel. The
question pundits ask is at what cost to Israeli lives, and Gazan
lives. And what comes next? The common thread heard by most experts
is that the solution is to have the PA's Abu Mazan take control of
Gaza, protected by perhaps Egypt or other outside forces.

2nd
Lt. Hadar Golden, believed to have been kidnapped during a Hamas
attack, was pronounced deceased on Saturday night. His family was
visited by Israel's chief rabbi who gave them the news. Later Moshe
Yaalon, Israel's Minister of Defense, visited the family. Golden's
death brings the number of soldiers killed to 65. Nearly 140 soldiers
are still in the hospital, 11 in grave condition.

The
Palestinians claim that approximately 1,700 Gazans have died in the
fighting and about 9,000 injured.

Some analysts
remind TV viewers of the fact that Hamas kidnapped three Israeli
teenagers, then began firing rockets into Israel, and these facts go
nearly unnoticed in the foreign press. On Saturday Hamas fired 90
rockets into Israel. One mortar round landed in a farm along the
border fence seriously wounding a 70-year old farmer. The Hamas
rocket fire continued on Sunday. The fact that Hamas can still fire
rockets underlines that Hamas still has the ability to fire weapons
into Israel even after 27 days of Israeli counter-attacks.

Where is the
fairness in this coverage, asked one concerned Jewish American. A Sky
News reporter in Gaza quoted residents who stated that Israel was
bombing Mosques simply because they were Moslem structures and that
the mosques had no missiles or terrorists in them. He also said that
Hamas was demanding and end to the economic boycott of Gaza. One
analyst said that had this reporter criticized Hamas in any way he
would have at least lost his privilege of reporting from Gaza. In the
past Hamas has been known to kidnap reporters and hold them for
ransom.

Hamas leader
Khaled Mashal admitted to CNN that Hamas had indeed broken the
ceasefire on Friday, but only because Israel was occupying Gaza and
digging up tunnels. The fact Hamas broke the ceasefire was lost in a
previous news cycle replaced by scenes of destroyed buildings in
Gaza.

Hamas
representatives, along with their partner Islamic Jihad, as well as
representatives of Qatar, Turkey, and the PA arrived in Cairo to
continue the process of reaching a formal ceasefire. Israel has said
it will not attend at this time. Experts say that Cairo will take a
tough line against Hamas, not wanting them to achieve any significant
goals as a result of this conflict. These pundits point out that
Egyptian president Al-Sissi has more than 35,000 prisoners in jail,
including many members of the Moslem Brotherhood, a Hamas brother
organization.

Critics of PM
Netanyahu say that the war against Hamas is ending with muddled
results. Tunnels destroyed can be rebuilt. The farms along the border
will still be hit with mortars, and long range rockets will still
lobbed into Israel when Hamas felt like doing so.

Israeli
residents on the Israel/Lebanon border in the north of Israel have
reported that they hear tunneling beneath their homes. The terrain in
Lebanon is much different than Gaza with hard thick bedrock and
basalt rather than soft sand. Drilling equipment and explosives are
needed to tunnel. Experts said that once Israel withdraws from Gaza
and the south they will focus on the very real tunnel threat along
the northern border.

Pundits say
that as long as this rise of Islamic Fundamentalism continues, Israel
will be on the front line of confronting these groups, functioning as
proxies of the west, all the while criticized for the damage incurred
in the fighting by the countries they are representing.

As author
William Goldman wrote in “The Princess Bride” who ever said life
was fair.